Talk with a teacher of meditation

Isabel Ward shares with us the answers of the meditation master K. Dhammasami doubts and concerns, which are that on occasion have raised us all: the purpose of the meditation, the release of pain...

The Venerable Dr Khammai Dhammasami He is Abbot of the monastery Oxford Buddha Vihara, United Kingdom. Buddhist monk for more than thirty years, studied in Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. Resident in Britain since 1996, he completed his doctoral studies at Oxford, where he founded the monastery in 2003 which is Abbot.

He has been teacher of Vipassana meditation and midnfulness since 1996 in Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Spain, Thailand, United States, Canada, Hungary and Serbia. His book Meditation easy Mindfulnnes It has been translated into Thai, Korean, and Spanish.

Elizabeth Ward talk with the teacher of meditation:

I have no very clear which is the purpose of meditation. I hear too many attributes: calms, reducing stress, attention, mind control... what pursues, in its opinion, the practice of meditation?

The sense of calm is the beginning of the meditation practice. It is something that everyone can experience easily. The only thing we have to do is to keep the conscious mind on the breath, inspiring... venting air... It really is a shame that something so simple pass unnoticed for many people. However, when we remain a few moments watching the incredible phenomenon of breath we can witness how the mind is reassuring.

However, the calm is not itself the object of meditation, but rather is the instrument that enables us to develop understanding and wisdom. Without understanding, the mind does not know how to quiet down or how to stop repeat negative emotions. So create a space for serenity in mind so that consciousness emerges is the best way to begin to meditate.

But Neither the understanding nor wisdom are the final object of meditation; These are tools that we have developed in order to resolve that which causes us conflict in the mind: the source of our suffering...

I.e., the objective is to free us from pain... But and if I'm well in this moment of my life? And if I don't feel pain?

You realize that when we begin to meditate, last only a few minutes discovered the pain, physical discomfort, and how with practice learn to deal with it. For the beginner it is a challenge, because in the absence of calm in mind, this reacts dispersing and staying busy jumping from one thought to another. So the first thing we do when meditating is to develop the stillness in the mind, and the second, change our attitude about the pain.

We are used to prosecute the pain, we believe that it is bad. But the truth is that pain is very important to the health of our body, it is a signal that tells us how we relate to our body. Without pain, we desconoceríamos how to manage ourselves with our physical structure. If you sit for a long time, the pain will tell you that you get up, and will also tell you when to sit.

However, the pain that sometimes we experience does not have to do with physical pain, but rather with psychological pain, the pain of the mind. The pain that we experience in the mind is the real problem.

If you are healthy, five, thirty, or you can remain perfectly sixty minutes without moving, you are not going to pass anything. In fact, if there is a football match, could 30 minutes without moving we faced the TV, or an hour or even six watching a tennis match. Physically we can with that pain, but pain of mind complains after five minutes.

I don't see the sense of observing the pain. There is too much conflict outside, in society, and I don't see the sense to introduce us inside it.

Pain is a very important sign, a relevant message that should receive. Despite this, is information that we tend to reject and which therefore do not is examined or analyzed carefully. The truth is that pain can be a friend, but we tend to think that it is the enemy. If you think that something someone is the enemy, you generate tension in mind. So if you think that the pain of your body is your enemy, you will generate a lot of mental activity.

The Buddhists say that pain is very important to life. We are born with pain and break into tears. If we do not llorásemos, the doctors, the nurses, the mother, is worried. Instead the sound of crying is a way of communication with the newborn. His weeping, tells us that it is OK. The baby was accustomed to the environment of the mother's womb and suddenly after much effort, is in a medium unknown where the air is harsh for their smooth skin, where unknown beings caught him with large, hard fingers. Why the baby is crying. Doctors, nurses, or the mother can do much; the baby has to accept the pain to gain access to the outside world. When you accept it, you stop crying. And when you need it, use the pain to communicate with the mother. Cries when he is hungry, tired or cold. It is their way of communicating with the mother.

Sometimes the mind cries, but the body does not want to listen; There is no good communication between the body and the mind. When we develop a bit of calm and look at the pain, we realize how the body affects the mind and how the mind affects the body. Epain is a very important communication source, so we have to develop the ability to deal with it.

-Thursday 16 of June, free day at the UCM, from 18.00 to 20.00:
"Self-awareness within the Buddhist tradition, the management of ethics and emotion in the Mindfulness"
Salon versatile of the Faculty of political sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas